Match Of The Day presenter Gary Lineker has announced he has quit Twitter, citing only ‘personal reasons’.

The former Spurs and England striker posted news of his decision on the social media network on Friday evening, with some speculating he had been the subject of abuse from other members of the Twitter community.

The news left Lineker’s 1.3million followers baffled as he had given no prior indication he was considering dropping his use of the site.

‘I’m leaving twitter for personal reasons. Thanks all,’ he wrote.

Gary Lineker’s final tweet (Picture: Twitter/@GaryLineker)

Lineker had previously suggested that he was not entirely comfortable with Twitter after trolls targetted his son George – making light of his childhood battle with leukemia.

However, the 51-year-old former footballer had become one of Britain’s most-followed celebrities – tweeting his observations on his favoured sport but also divulging aspects of other parts of his life, recently including updates as he filmed for an episode of the BBC’s family heritage show Who Do You Think You Are?